Nathan George is a little overdressed to be attending a basketball game, but the state representative was just so glad to be back home in Yell County, he didn't even bother to go home and change first before he came to the game in Dardanelle last Friday night.

George had just finished a television interview in Conway at Arkansas Educational Television Network (AETN), and he was dressed in his Sunday best.

It had been quite a learning experience for the freshman state legislator, who arrives at work at the state capital in Little Rock at 7 a.m. to begin studying for the bills that will cross his desk in committee as well as in the General Assembly.

He has already found some success as a bill he sponsored made it through both houses without a single nay vote.

The bill states that if a college student should be called into active military duty while still enrolled in college, the student will have three options when he returns - get his money back for the semester; be given up to a year to complete the work missed; or get a free semester.

"There was not a single dissenting vote, and I'm real proud of that," George said. "We owe it to the men and women of our military to help as much as we can."

George has spent a lot of time on higher education even though he is on the agriculture and transportation committees.

"I've spent a lot of time on higher education, more than I planned to," George, a Democrat, said. "We need to expand our core curriculum and its not fair to students who work hard to lose credit hours when they transfer.

"I've got another non-partisan bill that I'm sponsoring with (Republican) Sharon Trusty that will require universities in Arkansas to accept transfers from other public accredited institutions.

In fact, we just had it amended today to where it would include private colleges in the state as well. It's just not right for the students to lose those hours because they are transferring.

"There has been some opposition to that bill," he continued. "Some of the colleges don't like it, but we need it.

"We need higher college graduation rates. The more college graduates we have, the better it will be for the state."